Rick Kinnaird

Saturday July 4, 2020

120 Days until the election on November 3^rd

200 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021

A friend of mine, who I have known since grade school, posted on Facebook a picture of a beach in Florida. It was taken through a position of sitting back on a chaise lounge. He stated the per capita number of deaths in Florida versus New York. New York’s per capita was higher, according to his numbers. He asked, “Where would you rather live?”

This brings up a fascinating point. (Okay, not that fascinating.) 

Although his per capita numbers may be correct his logic is off. To argue his point one would have to look at the per capita death rate now, not the average over the entire time period. New York had a huge spike at first, but its governor fought to get it down. Florida’s governor did the opposite. He ignored it, belittled it, and now Florida is paying the price. The day before yesterday, July 2^nd, Florida had over 6,000 new cases of Corona Virus, while New York had 872. If we went on a per capita basis now, obviously New York with a much larger population than Florida would have a much lower per capita rate than Florida.

There is evidence no matter where you look and how some want to spin it that getting tough early works. Ignoring doesn’t. In Michigan where the governor ignored the president’s suggestions and she ignored the gun toting put up to it Second Amendment fellas with their AR-15s the rate of infection is way down, like 495 in a day versus Florida or Georgia where the governors got in line with the White House silliness and they have cases in the thousands per day. Their hospitals are at capacity and they are barely holding on.

South Dakota where the president went last night for what has been termed “a super spreader event” will probably see a spike over what they already are experiencing. The vice president had to delay a trip a day because his Secret Service team was infected and they had to bring in new agents. How long will it be before one of the inner circle gets it? By that I mean the virus, not sanity – please.

It turns out that leadership and science are better than ignoring and ignorance. In other words, facing reality and dealing with it work better than la-la land. But don’t tell president Trump. He doesn’t like that.

This brings up the whole Russians paying to kill Americans. 

I can’t get Sarah Cooper’s lip-sync of Trump talking about disinfectant out of my head. She makes his ignorance and stupidity so clear. Talk about transparency! She also has said she is envious of him because he has managed his whole life to get by on BS, and she hasn’t.

To watch him in interviews trying to think of something, anything, to get by, is sickening and most people can’t watch it. It is so appalling. Yet, the scary thing is he is probably going to run for a second term and currently it appears he has no chance of winning, but there is a more than even chance he could steal the election.

Trump, aided and abetted by the national and local Republican parties, could create a situation where several states’ votes could be called into question. Even if they aren’t he could declare a national emergency and say some states’ votes are in question. If this happens then The Supreme Court could get involved. The Constitution says the Electoral College must vote in December and if no candidate gets a majority the election gets thrown into the House where each state gets one vote. In Gore v Florida the Court said that the votes weren’t re-counted in Florida in time, sorry. And remember this all happened because of a confusing ballot and hanging chads that were created in a heavily Democratic area because the Republican in charge of the election saw to it to create unreadable ballots. (Just in case you didn’t know. The ballots were all prepunch, which is fine for mail-in over seas ballots. However, if those ballots are run through machines they tend to poke out partially some of the choices and thus the hanging chad.)

Imagine that! Would Trump do it? Would he declare a national emergency so as to make it so that no one gets a majority of the electoral college votes and thus no one is elected President by the Electoral College? 

Who wants to take the bet?

What happens then? Each state gets one vote. There are 26 Republican states and 24 Democratic states. 

26-24 Trump.

It’s horrible to contemplate but it’s realistic to assume.

Have a nice day. Wear a Mask. Stay home. It won’t kill you. (Other things can.)

120 Days until the election on November 3^rd

200 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021

PS The famous ball player stella of El Baúl. The site was destroyed in 1997 and a few pieces of sculpture were saved. This is one of them. Most people don’t get to see the original because you have to know where it is and how to get there. It’s behind a guarded twenty foot high chain link fence with coils of barbed wire on top. 

What is going on here? Gloved ballplayers wearing old football helmets and holding round balls is what I see. I haven’t seen much real scholarly evidence. Ancient aliens? Proof that the lost tribe settled here? Or ancient Egyptians? Yes, that is probably out there. But what it really represents is hard to say. As far as I know it is the only example of this sort of thing. There is a copy on the wall of the National Museum in Guatemala City. You typically see it as you enter or leave the museum and are on the bus. You have time to ask yourself, “What is that?” and then it’s gone. No one will tell you or they gloss over it. (Obviously, a deep state conspiracy. Sigh.)

Maybe, no one knows? 

Friday July 3, 2020

121 Days until the election on November 3^rd

201 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021

“Have you ever thought of a new sin?”

That was a question a clergyman once posed.

The answer is, “No.” They’re the same ones they were in the Middle Ages, in Ancient Rome, in Babylon. Regardless of whether we consider certain behaviors sinful or not is a question (The Egyptian royalty believed in marrying their siblings, for instance.) What we take as an intoxicant may change from one civilization to another, but overall human behavior remains pretty much the same.

Also, it seems once a person gets to a certain age, they aren’t going to change their behaviors very much. Some say that age is eighteen, others twenty six. Regardless, of what that number is, by the time you get to your seventies most would agree, I think, that you won’t be changing much. 

Donald Trump is a one-trick pony. We’ve seen the trick over and over again. We are still stunned that he does it, and that he gets away with it. Some ask him to do something different. Despite, all evidence to the contrary some still plead and implore. I got news for you all – it ain’t happening. 

The most astonishing thing to me is how many in power are willingly going along with it. 

I went to The Virginia Museum of Fine Art (VMFA) yesterday to see the new exhibit on Egyptian treasures recently recovered from underwater near the mouth of the Nile. It is a stunning exhibit and it rivals much of what I saw on my recent trip to Cairo. In fact, some artifacts such as the small gold coins are, as far as I know, unique to this show. 

Whenever I look at Egyptian artifacts and I think of all the time and attention paid to their creation and I think about their beliefs and their elaborate burial rituals and belief in the afterlife I can’t help but think, “Didn’t anyone ever say, ‘Hey, wait a second. This isn’t working!’ ? “ You’d think in the thousands of years someone would have said something. But the same con was pulled over and over again.

Didn’t anyone say something? We can look to our own society for the answer. The gods have changed but the behavior remains the same.

In other news, the Trump administration continues its dismantling of the Justice Department. Bill Barr has now gotten rid of the head prosecutor in the Eastern District. He has now decapitated the three departments that are heading up investigations into Trump and Trump’s friends and associates. This is not by chance.

We are breaking new records everyday in the number of cases of Corona virus found. Hospitals in many areas of the country are at near capacity to over capacity. What is the administration doing? According to Steve Mnuchin they are watching the numbers very carefully. Why the Secretary of the Pillfery, I mean Treasury, is giving medical advise is hard to fathom other than to say, “Hey, that’s the way they roll.” 

Mr. Trump will be going to Mount Rushmore to take part in a shoulder to shoulder no mask spitting and infecting event to celebrate what our country has become – tomorrow.

New unemployment numbers are out and they are terrible.

States are running out of money.

People are not going to be getting anymore money from the government unless Congress acts.

This depends on Mitch McConnell, who currently says there’s no reason to do anything, other than to “assess the situation.” I guess he’s next door to Steve who is watching the numbers carefully.

But what do you want? This is exactly what the Republicans said they would do if elected. Nothing at best and at worst they’d rip down government. The Trump administration is in court to try and get rid of Obamacare thus throwing millions of people off health care. Many got on this program when they lost their health care because it was tied to their job. When they lost their job so went their health care. What is the Republican plan for health care? Well, it’s a little early for that don’t ya think? I mean they have to assess and watch. They haven’t had a health care plan in when? Nixon? And that was just a reshuffling of who got to rip us off. So it’s been forty or fifty years and even then what they proposed was shit. Yeah, let’s get rid of what we got and wait for them to do something.

You’ve seen this play out before. You know how it ends.

121 Days until the election on November 3^rd

201 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021

PS A large statue of an Egyptian bull. The Egyptians used to pray to bulls and they buried each sacred bull in a large sarcophagus (as shown). This went on for thousands of years. It ended with the reign of Cleopatra. In those thousands of years there is not a report of all that reverence paying off.

Thursday July 2, 2020

122 Days until the election on November 3^rd

202 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021

We’ve seen Trump for who he is. We’ve seen it for a long time. Some longer than others. But now for the vast majority of people in this country and around the world there can be little doubt. I imagine we’ll hear the “this can’t be” chorus for awhile; followed by, “but it is.” Then the sad truth will be there. Laid out in front of us.

Because his behavior is so staid, it isn’t hard to predict what he will do. 

This became appallingly clear to anyone following his behavior in regards to the latest Russian catastrophe – the bounty being paid for American soldiers’ deaths. Trump said it was a hoax, being perpetrated by the fake news. His minions in the White House have made the predictable excuses: it wasn’t credible, he can’t read, he doesn’t read, no one told him, the people saying these things are bad people, etc. etc.

So where are we? People in high places are stating the obvious – the man is unfit for the job.

What will happen?

One of two things: 

– He will complete his term. 

– He will be removed from office before he completes his term. 

Which is worse?

It’s hard to say. How much more damage can he do?

That is always the question isn’t it? How bad can it get? We are continually astounded and astonished by his depravity. Not surprised.

What if he is removed? Then what? Mike Pence. OMG! 

My only fantasy is that they both get impeached at the same time.

Well, it’s not my only fantasy, but the only one relevant to this topic.

Okay, it’s not. (Not the only one relevant.) 

Fantasy 1 – He will complete his term and Joe Biden becomes President. What does Joe do first?

Fantasy 2 – Both Pence and Trump are taken out of office in a double impeachment, thus denying Trump the pardon he hoped Pence would give him. Nancy Pelosi becomes President until the election. What does she do first?

Ah, me. There is so much to consider.

Meanwhile, we now know the name of the bagman in Afghanistan. The man who was paying the Taliban to kill our soldiers. We also know the price – $100,000 per. 

We know also what the president will do about this, and about the pandemic.

Nothing.

122 Days until the election on November 3^rd

202 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021

PS Buying frankincense and myrrh in Petra.

WednesdayJuly 1, 2020

123 Days until the election on November 3^rd

203 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021

Maya Angelou said (and I probably am misquoting a bit) “When someone tells you who they are believe them the first time.” 

Yeah, that’s our problem. We don’t believe. Not the first time, nor the second, It’s not until “WE” get smacked in the face over and over again that some of us say either, “Well maybe, I dunno.” Or “I don’t believe it.”

Like Trump and the snake, you knew who he was and what he was before you picked him up. Now that he’s doing exactly what he has done all his life don’t act surprised.

Steve Benen in his book “The IMPOSTORS” lays out the case that we’ve seen play out for years and that is that the Republican Party is no longer interested in governing, only in holding onto power. Yet, some want to believe otherwise.

Look, I get it. Co-equal branches of government and all that. Makes one think that there are two political parties in this country and yeah they have different ideas on how the country should be run, but that is no longer true. There hasn’t been a cohesive vision, strategy, or plan on anything by the Republican Party for years – decades, and it shows no abatting. 

Why is that? Why has the Republican Party abandoned the idea of governing? Simply, because it is easier not to, and it is easier to stay in power if you don’t agree with your opponents and you don’t do anything so you can’t be blamed for having done something.

That’s hypocritical, I know. It’s cynical, yeah. But it’s true.

Many people in Richmond, where I live, got good jobs at the local Dupont plant. They got nice pensions too. They talk about the good old days, if we could only go back to them. They seem to forget that Mr. Dupont was forced to cough up the pensions. He didn’t do it out of the goodness of his heart and it damn sure wasn’t a Republican administration that made him do it.

Then there’s Walmart. Sam Walton was forced by the courts to pay overtime. It was the law and he ignored it. He was pissed. He handed out the checks with the warning that anyone who cashed them would be fired. The good old days. Rock on.

Now we have the Confederate monuments. Remember our heritage! Yeah. Remember that in the 1920s when the Jim Crow laws weren’t working anymore people pissed off about that started putting up those statues. This had nothing to do with the Civil War, which some try to imply. It’s like putting up statues to other opponents. Ben Franklin never spoke to his son after the Revolutionary War because his son was a Tory. Seems we forgot that history is written by the winners. Why are the southerners whining? They lost. They are losers. Oh sorry, let’s reach across the aisle. Oh wait, you didn’t. Yet you want someone else to do it because you whine? Forget Hell! Is the bumper sticker that is sold in those backwoods convenience stores in the south with a Rebel soldier on it waving a sword. No, I don’t forget. Hey, it’s in the name of the soldier – Rebel. In other words Traitor. America – Love it of Leave it. Isn’t it time you left?

Oh sorry, there’s no where to go because no one wants you. Europe says they don’t want us. We weren’t invited to the dance. Why? Seems the Republican governors who have demonstrated over and over again that they can’t contain this virus have made it’s spread their number one priority. Yeah. That’s right. I mean how else can you account for the fact that our country can’t stop the spread of this thing? Governors have actively worked to keep the virus alive and moving through our population. It has gotten so bad throughout the south that their hospitals systems are on the verge of being overrun.

What to do? Oh, maybe wear a mask you say? Good move. Too bad you are a little late to the dance.

Then we have the President and the whole business about Russia paying to assassinate our troops. Every time the White House comes out with a lame excuse, the press comes out with more evidence to countermand it. The president didn’t know. (Yes he did. It was in his daily briefing on February 27^th.) It may have been in his daily brief, but he doesn’t read. He has to be told – orally. (He was. John Bolton told him. Oh and it was in intelligence briefings a year earlier too.) Well, you know if it isn’t directly about him he doesn’t listen. (Yeah, we know.)

Sarah Cooper the comedian who lip-syncs to his words has a new video out. She is funny, but it’s not only the lip-sync, but if you listen to what she is lip-syncing to, you realize that it is utter gibberish and or incoherent stupidity. It’s not stuff we haven’t heard before. It’s not like she had to go out of her way to find some weird little tidbit. This is the kind of thing he says all the time in public. This is who he is. This is what he does. He spouts nonsense as a matter of course.

The Republicans in charge, in Congress, in positions of power around the country have carefully and deliberately set a course of no governance. They have no intention of governing. They have either lost the ability to govern or is the case most of the time have decided to not govern because it is both hard and it doesn’t necessarily get them re-elected. Run on their record? What? And have someone say they don’t like what they did? Hell no. It’s easier to say, “Can’t blame me. I didn’t do it.” What they leave out is “I did nothing.” 

That’s not true. They’ve stood in the way of any progress. Not progressive ideas, progress in general. Look at health care, John Boehner said in the over twenty five years he was in Congress he never saw a Republican health care plan. What did they do when they took power in the House? They voted to repeal Obamacare over forty times. What did they offer instead? Nothing. 

What has the Trump administration done on health care? Here we are in the middle of a pandemic and his lawyers are in court trying to get what Congress hasn’t gutted to get rid of Obamacare altogether. What do they propose instead? Nothing.

Does it defy logic? Yes and no. 

If you are operating under the illusion that there are two parties in this country and that when one or the other is in power they have different philosophies of government then you are operating under a misconception. The Republican Party of today has no interest in governance. Sound bites is as far as it goes.

Sorry. But they keep showing you and me, who they are. Let’s believe them.

123 Days until the election on November 3^rd

203 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021

PS Seven Headed Naga – Angkor